Liima is a new band formed by Finnish percussionist Tatu Rönnkö plus Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg of Danish act Efterklang.
Their debut album ii features songs written in Finland, Berlin, Istanbul and Madeira during four week-long residencies, each place influencing the sound, sometimes literally through field recording and sampling. Every residency ended with a live concert, performing the freshly written songs in front of an audience.
Translated from Finnish as ‘glue’, Liima found the spontaneity of writing and performing in a limited time frame hugely liberating. From a simple live set-up – synthesisers, drum samplers, vocals, effects pedals and a bass guitar – the four were able to draw upon their creative dynamic, playing by intuition like a collective conscience, to shape improvised sketches and ideas into songs. They took the same instinctive approach when recording the album. In October 2015 the band, along with producer Jonas Verwijnen, headed to Vox-Ton studio in Berlin, recording the album in just three days, playing everything together live with no overdubs. ii was mixed to tape by Francesco Donadello.
Tatu Rönkkö – hand played beats on a MPC sampler and percussion
Mads Brauer – electronics and synthesizers
Casper Clausen – vocals and synth
Rasmus Stolberg – bass and synth

The first track to be taken from ii is ‘Amerika’ and can be heard below or here:

Liima – ‘Amerika’

Liima begin 2016 with further residencies in London and Copenhagen, as well as a UK and European tour in the Spring. The four-piece will be artists-in-residence at The London EDITION Hotel from January 17-20. Liima will perform the music created in those three days to a private audience on January 20th. Members of the press are invited to visit and meet the band whilst they work on January 18and 19, and see the culminating live performance on January 20. More info can be found in the flyer below.